He always has lectured Republicans when, at least in his mind, they failed to act “honorably.” Where is the honor in this senator’s silence?

I’ll tell you where. Nowhere. Operation Leper should include acceptance by silence and put McCain on the list if he continues not to speak out.

the U.S. has 50 states. So, why is Palin so pilloried? It’s personal. It shows the insecurity and defensiveness of the LEAKERS. As you’ve said, they should be banned from all campaigns.

Can ANY politician imagine having some of these traitors in their future organizations?

“Name them …… make them famous!”

but pointing out Palin’s loyalty is not a particularly persuasive point. Yeah, she was loyal, but it wasn’t that hard to do. Not a real stretch to be grateful and loyal to a man who just gave you the biggest political chance of your life. She had nothing to gain from being disloyal; the campaign was win-win for Palin. Even losing would position her as a front-runner for 2012.

Having said that, conservatism is built on a foundation of honor and respect for principles. Certainly the McCain staffers who are trying to salvage their careers or soothe their egos as Palin’s expense are showing no regard for honor and dignity, and should be ostracized lest they infect the rest of us.

I think the more salient point is to note how vigorously the media and intellectual elites are STILL trying to undermine Palin. They recognize the powerful long term threat she poses, and are doing everything they can to neutralize that threat with preemptive character assasination. Bizarre that even in victory they are fearful of us.

I don’t know what it is with these people, but conservatism isn’t something you can just kill by excising it from a political party. It’s a way of life and most of this nation is conservative. Let them cannibalize each other while we keep tallies. We will get our party back at some point.

There’s no evidence whatsoever that Gov. Palin was disloyal. What, she chose to do more interviews than her handlers wanted her to? You mean the handlers that were obviously afraid of the resonance she brought the ticket? Sorry, too bad.

Is Tuesday a good day to do a weekly “Frog March of the Quislings?” to ensure that we all know right where to send our adoring correspondence to those who would backstab their betters?

For your stalwartness on this issue.

McCain was SO-O-O-O quick to issue statements of shock and disavowal when anyone uttered “That One’s” middle name (Hussein), or dared bring up “That One’s” association with Rev. Wright. His blasts usually came within the hour. Why is he so silent on this one? Why is he allowing these annonymous cowards to slander Gov. Palin and not condem the statements and vilify the evil-doers? Why did FOX’s Cameron so gleefully report this, and in such detail? I am beginnig to think that we were “saved” by McCain’s loss…we were desperate for someone–anyone–to pick up the gauntlet. It was never, and could never, have been McCain: he would have been too busy bending over backwards, appeasing the democrats, to have accomplished anything.
Sarah Palin boosted and envigorated McCain’s lackluster campaign from double-digit losses to an exciting contest that was very close. She brought back many of us disaffected republicans to the fold and many of us voted for HER, NOT McCain. These so-called “insiders” who are viciously attacking her now, should be kissing the hem of Gov. Palin’s skirt, not dissing her! The Leper’s List is going to be a Leper Colony at this rate.

Sarah Palin deserves our loyalty. These collaborators and turncoats do not. Not one person who voted with Democrats against Conservative ideology should be spared. We need to raze this house to the ground and start from scratch. No looking back. Don’t leave anything or anyone for our enemy to hang us with! Start calling out the moderates, we need our version of the loyalty oath. A new contract with the America and the Republican party!

Remember that we are partisans. That used to be a good thing! During WW2, partisans fueled the resistance against the occupying Nazis. They started by teaching the collaborators a lesson. The French Resistance shaved the heads of collaborators as an example!

So to all those jumped ship, caucused with Dems, who tattled to the NYT/WP… WATCH YOUR BACKS!

Let’s hear out our moderates. Watch them closely. But sharpen your razors folks….

Who is on it and is there proof or is it still conjecture?

Erik ,

My thoughts were that maybe you were over reacting to the rumors ,

But in the last 24 hours these rumors have become a tsunami

John Mcain is a honorable man , and he needs to stop this NOW – not in a week or 10 days

When I call you a thief on national tv , it becomes your problem to clear your name.

They are doing this to damage Sara Palin , and hoping that she can never clear up her image , Well it may work if they continue doing this for another week , and that is why Mcain needs to stop this NOW !!!!

I am so mad now that I want to write a check for “Palin for President”

This behavior is unwarrented , and I would tell Mcain and his team , ( what he knows already ) that if not for Sara the outcome would have been much worse

…are you guys holding Romney accountable? I mean, a lot of the leaks are apparently coming from his former advisors, and cui bono, and all that.

but McCain now has a “send the senator a thank you note” link up on his campaign web site…I was polite and respectful, but I did NOT send him a thank you…I asked him when he was going to stand up and defend his VP choice from the attacks from his own staffers…here’s the link (I hope I did this right…I’m not much on links and whatnot):

http://www.johnmccain.com/involving/petition3.aspx?guid=0402caa6-1ae7-41b0-8f47-9427a238b5f1

Keep the leper list going! The Republicans on here encouraging this crap need to take a few moments.

What’s happening to Palin is HORRIBLE what’s worse is what is happening to the CONSERVATIVE PARTY (or perhaps Republican Party…formerly the party of conservatives).

This dogging on Palin…passing blame, etc. benefits ABSOLUTELY NO ONE! Except the person spreading the rumors around, those particular people are jumping ship and trying to align themselves with the D’s…go for it!

If the republican party cannot close ranks and protect this woman, after what the dems and the media did to her and her family during the campaign, . . .

then we are scum. And that includes McCain.

Did I hear correctly on the news that Nicole Wallace was on a morning talk show, stating things like, “No one is more on a non-Diva than Governor Palin?”

It shows you that our ElectedElite Washington insiders stick together. They do not want their cozy gig interrupted by an outsider such as Palin.

We get the smoke screen of Reps and Dems fighting for us but really, they are fighting against us for themselves.

They no longer represent Country.

Seems that’s the best argument against this trashing of Palin. Either they did a lousy job of Vetting her (Some Truth in that), then they are to blame for all of this stupidity, or they are making it up, which is even worse.

Regardless of the real story, the blame resides directly on the McCain People, and none on Palin. If she was so bad, they should never had her on the Ticket in the first place. If she isn’t that bad, then they shouldn’t be trashing her now.

Since Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) days seem to be numbered, perhaps Sarah can take his seat. That ought to boost her credentials. After all, by 2012 she’d be in the Senate more than the 143 days The One occupied prior to running for POTUS

the line of thought Addison pointed out above.

There are probably numerous nasty motivations for this, but remember:

Soon after our loss on the 4th, many began to speak the terms “Palin” and “2012″ in the same sentence.

This is bound to frighten true RomneyBots and HuckaBots.

They simply don’t want Sarah to derail the chances of “their guy” next time around.

It’s sleazy, and must be punished.

Me love Sarah!

Listened to Mike Gallagher on the way into work, and he was all over this Fox News reporting of rumor and innuendo about Palin being a diva and an ignorant rube. He interviewed David Frum (no Palin fan, but he believes she’s being thrown under the bus). Gallagher interviewed Chris Wallace earlier and Wallace said that Frum blaming these stories on Nicolle Wallace was flat wrong, that Frum doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It was also clearl that Chris Wallace and the rest at Fox know where these reports are coming from, yet are “protecting their source.” Chris Wallace essentially said of Frum, “He’s wrong. Guess again.”

So, Fox originally pushed the story based on anonymous sources. The rest of the sharks in the MSM have picked up on these stories and are repeating them as true without ANYONE doing the work to confirm them. Fox is as bad as MSNBC at this point, meaning it’s a miserable excuse for a news network. Thank God for Greta, who was hopping mad last night at these reports and the way the networks, including Fox, has given them life.

Ultimately, both Gallagher and Frum came to the conclusion that the source of the Palin stories is indeed Nicolle Wallace, or lower-level Romney devotees in the McCain campaign.

And the quislings are depending upon the tendency of the news media not to check sources, not to look into stories before they run with them, in order to perpetuate this character assassination of Gov. Palin.

I love Palin too and I think it’s despicable what the McCain people are doing to her and McCain should come off his well-deserved vacation and put an end to it. Hopefully he is using back channels versus a public pronouncement.

I also believe it is too late for Palin. The damage is already done to her political career and she should not think of running for president in 2012. While she was great at rallying the base, a president needs to inspire the middle and some Democrats too. She cannot do that.

She is a decent and honorable person and a good Governor for the State of Alaska. She did a lot of good there cleaning up the corruption. Her communication skills and ability to think on her feet (the awful Couric interview, etc.) leave much to be desired. We should expect our leaders to do better than that when running for the second highest office. GWB was never as bad at communicating and he set the bar pretty low. I know ideas matter, but if you can’t inspire people to join your cause (as Reagan did — and now That One), you’re toast. Palin does not have that ability.

And for the Romney and Huckabee folks, you should hang it up too. They were both failures this time around and I’m glad to see Huckabee has found a new career. He is not presidential material anyway. As for Romney, I suspect he or his people had a hand in the Palin trashing and I am disgusted by that act of disloyalty to the party. And besides, Romney badly lost his party’s nomination after spending millions of dollars. There is no 1976 Reagan comparison here for either man. Romney should move on too.

We need fresh meat in 2010.

These people don’t realize that trashing Palin will gain them nothing in regard to public opinion. The opposite is true. They will look like even bigger fools for picking her… if she’s so incompetent. It’s the same tone deafness that lead this entire campaign. These people have no business running a campaign. Maybe they’ll go to work for the Dems next time. There’s something that might actually help the GOP.

are Palin supporters now the true ‘PUMA’s?

My resolve is stronger than ever. Sarah Palin will have money and time. She needs to rest and lay low, butthe base has to start building her support now. Primary opponents will be crushed.

Sen. Lindsay Graham leaking this? It would explain McCain’s silence as they are BFFs (gag). Everyone knows McCain and Graham really wanted Liebermann as VP and I actually think Joe thought he would get the nod which explains why he risked such a break with the Dems.

can we also see to it that whatever imbecile advised McCain to “suspend his campaign” and parachute into DC to put his a** on the line with the bailout bill also never has anything to do with another Republican campaign?

If you haven’t already done so, I believe that the answer is pretty clear as to what needs to be done. Instead of just talking about here. You can easily email Sarah Palin through the Alaska state website and send her your support, then contat via FAX or letter or phone, not email since they are so easily lost, to both McCain and Romney and tell them you are disgusted about what is going and you feel that it is their duty,(remind McCain of his own words)to put a public stop to this now or they will NEVER again have your support for anything.
The fact that both are silent on the matter is a pretty clear indication that no lesson has been learned from this election. The Republican base will not stand for this any longer.

Party is overwhelming.

Rasmussen poll today says she has 91% positive approval rating among Republicans.

Also that 69% of Republicans say she helped the ticket — only 20% say she hurt.

And, in the first poll of Presidential candidates Palin leads with 65%.

Mitt and Huck around 12% each, others in single digits.

She is by far the most popular Republican today. After she regroups I think we will see more of her as we begin to rebuild.

But she really needs some seasoning.

Say what you want to about media bias, but any politician should be capable of taking on Katie Couric.

Palin was picked before she was ready. In a few years I think she’ll be a real force to be reckoned with.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for McCain to help his wingman fight off her attackers. Flight Leads who leave their wingmen to fend for themselves don’t have many wanting to fly with them. Doesn’t this sound vaguely reminiscent of what Congressional republicans had to say about McCain before the MSM and open primaries handed him the republican nomination?

If McCain wanted these attacks on Palin to stop we’d have heard it already.

of all McCain staffer’s and their connections to all the 2008 Republican candidates.
Add to the list any turncoat columnist/pundit that now feels the need to mudsling.

Let’s educate these republicans (sic) about Conservative policy, honor, loyalty and just what it means to frack with the base.

*that’s not too mean-spirited, is it?

I have sent emails to McCain & his daughter expressing my extreme displeasure over their non-reaction to this issue. This is what I said in my email to his daughter:
I am extremely upset to hear on the news all the trash talk by the McCain campaign personnel about Sarah Palin.

I think it is time to put all this nasty rumors & talk about her aside. I think that she showed extreme class in her answers to the press when questioned about it.

As much as the press and public have trashed her, if I were in her shoes I probably would not have been so positive and nice. I would have been much less inclined to talk nice about the people who trashed me, my family, my kids and spent thousands of dollars going to Alaska to find dirt on her.

I sincerely doubt that any one of us could keep that positive and nice an attitude toward others if we had been treated so badly.

I was extremely pleased by the message your father had as his concession speech. I thought that this set the bar for the rest of the campaign workers, advisors, and volunteers. It is not time for blame and nasty words. It is a time to rebuild the Republican Party. It is time to learn lessons and plan ahead – not shove the running mate under the bus! I don’t think that your father would sanction this treatment. I, along with many other ardent supports, am very upset by these nasty stories hitting the papers and news shows.

Do we want to be remembered like the Clinton personnel who removed the “W” letters from all the computers & left the White House a mess? Do we want others to see that we let a few poor losers ruin and hurt the Party?

It is now time put our differences aside – follow Sarah & your father’s public leads. We need to wish the new president all the best as he takes on the momentous tasks that lie ahead for him. He needs our support & prayers, as do all those who lost in the campaign. It is time to bury the hatchet and go on with trying to fix the problems in our nation – not continue to divide it.

If the bickering continues, I am afraid that the results in 2010 & 2012 for our Party will be much worse than the 2008 ones.

Thanks for your time. I wish you the very best – just so sorry that the ending was not the one we wanted!